SunFi, the Nigerian clean tech startup, has raised $2.33 million in seed funding from lead investors including Nairobi-based Factor[e] and SCM Capital Asset Management and participating investors such as Voltron Capital, Norrsken Impact Accelerator, Ventures Platform and Sovereign Capital.
The investment will help SunFi grow its operations and improve its capabilities to recommend the best systems at the lowest cost to customers.
Founded in 2021 by Rotimi Thomas (CEO), Tomiwa Igun (COO) and Olaoluwa Faniyi (CTO), SunFi is an energy financial technology platform that connects people who want solar energy access to payment plans that match their needs.
It also provides customers with two payment methods: a lease to own, where after an initial deposit, customers make payments in instalments before owing the solar system, and a subscription model, where customers pay to use the solar system monthly. SunFi’s revenues are from the margin on the lease-to-own model and subscription fees from the latter. The company said it is working on a third revenue stream where it will assist solar providers with inventory financing.
SunFi creates value for these clean energy investors by de-risking the technical and credit risk involved in financing portfolios of solar solutions, opening avenues for lending as a service play for clean energy providers.
With this financing, the clean tech with fintech features will be looking to enhance its platform over the next 12-18 months. It also intends to convert more than 4,000 customers within that same time frame as the 29-person team grows. The clean tech is in talks to raise additional third-party capital, most likely debt, from commercial banks and other financing partners to channel that money through the system and finance all the energy platform’s demands to take care of this year.
Since its official launch last February, SunFi has onboarded over 40 solar system vendors to its platform at various stages of vetting; 10 are its core providers, which have served more than 129 customers. Within the past year, the one-year-old energy startup has deployed more than $600,000 to these customers via its partnerships with financial institutions.
“SunFi has the ability to transform the way clean energy is accessed by households and businesses across Nigeria by creating a marketplace of clean energy products combined with flexible payment options — all of which are personalized to the customer’s financial and energy needs,” said Lyndsay Holley-Handler, partner and chief venture builder at Factor[e] on the investment. “Platforms like these have unlocked access to clean energy in other markets but don’t yet exist in Africa. This type of innovation and disruption is why we decided to be part of SunFi’s journey…”
